The Big Snatch

The Big Snatch (1971)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

David Friendman produced this rather infamous sexploitation film about a psycho (Harry Chest) who kidnaps five women and takes them to his home out in the desert. Once there he turns them into his sex slave until one day when they get the upper hand and decide to return the torture.

THE BIG SNATCH is a pretty wild and fun sexploitation picture that has a lot of beautiful women who are constantly naked. Plot wise there's really not too much here as there's never an attempt to make this a serious thriller. I mean, the actresses were clearly hired for their bodies and not their acting skills as there's not even an attempt to make them act any other way than sexy. There's no terror that they feel. They're never in any fear for their lives or emotional damage. None of that stuff. Instead they just dance around naked and bounce their boobs.

What makes this film so memorable are the ladies and this includes Uschi Digard as one of them. All five women are quite easy on the eyes and they're asked to do various sexploitation things like slow showers, lesbian make out scenes and other moments where they just bounce around with the camera planted right on their breasts. I'd add that Chest is quite entertaining in his role as the bad guy.

Again, there's nothing here that is mean to be taken serious and there's no question that this was made on a very low-budget. Friedman and company were wanting to make money, not make an Oscar-worthy film. If you're a fan of sexploitation then this here is certainly worth watching.

Trashfilm legend David F. Friedman ("Blood Feast" etc.) says that "The Big Snatch" was made for a mere $11.000 by a L.A.P.D. cop!! Well, them cops sure got some serious twisted fantasies! No money or talent can't hide the fact that this flick is pretty sick and disturbing. Two lowlives abduct some saucy chicks and abuse them for days even though it looks like the women are enjoyin' the rape!?! It also seems like it would be pretty easy for the women to escape from the isolated ranch. But in the end they've had enough and boobqueen Uschi Digart ("Supervixens", "Getting Into Heaven" etc.) says; "Let's sock it to'em!" and the girls castrate one guy and shag the other to death! I ain't kiddin'. As Un-PC as you can get, so of course any sleazejunkie must possess this roughie from Something Weird!

I don't usually go into these sorts of films with high expectations, but to my surprise The Big Snatch is actually quite good! The title is obviously meant to have a double meaning, but actually it relates to the part of the plot that involves a couple of men going round kidnapping girls, only to have them turned into 'sex slaves'. Naturally, considering that this is a seventies rough porn flick, the acting and production values aren't up to much; but all you can really expect from a film like this is plenty of sex and a few laughs and the film delivers that. The plot works with the film quite well; it offers numerous opportunities for a bit of action, and most of these are capitalised on. The film doesn't feature a great deal of surprises in the first half, we just watch as the girls are 'trained' by their captors, but there's a decent twist around the middle in which the tables are turned and the film becomes a bit more interesting, and also features a few nail biting moments. The sex is mostly just softcore, so the film might not please the fans of the harder stuff, but its all fairly decent.

What could be better than seeing 70's softcore porn regulars Jane Tsentas, Peggy Church and Uschi Digert in various stages of nudity, ranging from full frontal to bra and panties. To reach this stage, 2 psychos kidnap 5 girls and have them jog in place, do push ups, touch their toes and stretch their bodies. All wear miniskirts...and, well, you can guess the rest. The girls are also forced to lie on their backs and stick their legs straight up in the air. Oh la la! Finally the girls get revenge and the best scene is when Peggy Church grabs a big pair of pliers and crushes the cocks of their tormenters. 70's soft core porn doesn't get much better then this.

Just so I am clear about why this $11,000 sexploitation film should be a standard for comparison, let me explain. For anyone who questions whether an exploitation film has drifted into sexploitation territory, I suggest immediately watching "The Big Snatch". Only if the flick in question can match "The Big Snatch" in minute for minute skin, should it even be considered as sexploitation. Another test would be, can you turn off the sound for the entire film and lose nothing? One big advantage of losing the audio is no generic porno music, no lame dialog, but you can still get the gist of a "humpathon" like "The Big Snatch". - MERK